HTC’s Thunderbolt is the flagship 4G LTE device for Verizon’s speedy new network. Seriously, this network is insanely fast, with download speeds averaging in the 10 to 15 mbps range, and upload speeds coming in between 3 and 5 mbps on average.

Though these bandwidth speeds are truly remarkable, especially coming from a mobile smartphone, constant use of the 4G LTE network has resulted in a detrimental impact on battery life for the Thunderbolt. I’ve been using the Thunderbolt as my daily driver for the past few weeks now, and it was truly a rare sight to see the battery make it beyond the 6 hour mark with moderate-heavy use, requiring me to charge the device 2 or even 3 times per day to make it through a full day of use. Now, I must state that I do live in an area that is fully covered by Verizon’s LTE network, and it is a well-known issue that the LTE network does have a negative impact on a device’s battery life, but should we really only expect our devices to only last 6 hours between charges?

As a personal and business user who depends on having a constant connection to the internet, my answer to that last question is a resounding NO. I (and I assume many/all of you) need my device to make it through the standard 8 hour workday at the bare minimum. No phones should be hitting the market in 2011 unless they can meet the bare minimum battery expectations. Up until the Thunderbolt, I haven’t had any problems getting to the 5pm bell.

What has me more worried than the abysmal battery life of the Thunderbolt is what this will mean for future LTE devices. Will they all be plagued with the same issues that cripple the Thunderbolt, or will device manufacturers find a way to bring the battery life of their devices back in line with our expectations? Will we in the future be forced to choose between a high end device that can tap the full LTE speeds or one that uses the lesser 3G networks but can last for a full day without needing to be plugged in multiple times per day?

Though I honestly don’t believe we will ever need to make that choice, the facts point a bit in that direction. The Thunderbolt launch was delayed by a full month to figure out a fix to the battery life issues, only to launch with the issues fully intact on the LTE network. Moreover, several individuals have pointed out that the Thunderbolt’s battery is just fine when using only the 3G network. All these signs point to LTE being a serious battery-suck, an issue that will require some creative engineering on the part of device manufacturers to remedy.

Hopefully it won’t be too long for a fix to present itself. Until then, we’re all left to wonder.

Anthony loves all things technology, from hardware to apps and games. You can connect with him via Google+ or Twitter by clicking one of the fancy doo-dads above.

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http://socialbeer.me l0g0s

With new phones and features comes the inevitable learning curve. They’ll have to work out a few bugs and figure out consumer usage patterns to be able to address it on the device. I certainly hope it is NOT a portent of what is to come, but I’m reasonably certain that the market will demand more and better from future releases.

http://Website Eric

“With new phones and features comes the inevitable learning curve. They’ll have to work out a few bugs and figure out consumer usage patterns to be able to address it on the device.”

That statement is BS. After the debacle with the EVO battery life (and a number of other devices), they already know what they need to fix. If a phone is being made to be 4G/LTE/HSPA+, it should be able to be left in that mode all day. With my EVO, I have to manually (via a widget) turn 4G on and off whenever I need to use it because if I leave it on all day, my phone will only last a couple of hours. Couple that with the fact that Sprint is charging $10/month to have this privilege, and I feel like I am being ripped off. I knew this going in though, and still wanted the EVO. With newer devices, A YEAR LATER, they should have this fixed. They don’t need to figure out usage patterns to know that a 5 hour battery life is insane and will not fit that overwhelming majority of users.

Is there plan REALLY to put out a phone with terrible battery life, make people sign a 2 year contract to get it, and THEN work on a new device with better battery life that won’t be available to me without breaking my existing contract? That’s ridiculous. They should spend the time getting it right the first time, or just use a higher capacity battery in the phone.

http://Website Benajmin

what you’re saying is like saying I bought a dual threaded single core processor that had power drain problems and that it’s preposterous that A YEAR LATER they’ve released a multi-core processor that also has power draining problems… and before you say that’s completely different… it really isn’t… both are struggling to efficiently handle power consumption at the slightly higher(HSPA+) and now significantly higher(LTE). I mean give them a break it’s not only significantly more data being processed but it’s a third antennae that is now draining power… I mean I’d really like to see you maintain battery longevity under the circumstances…

http://Website Eric

You are missing the point. You don’t release something that sucks (literally in terms of battery life). What you’re saying is, it’s fine for them to add a ton of features, even if it compromises the one thing that allows you to use those features! Yes, the third antenna is great, but if you can’t make sure the phone keeps up with it, you can’t release it as the latest and greatest phone! Do the companies REALLY expect consumers to carry a charger with them at all times?

My EVO was at 100% this morning at 8:00am. By the time I got to work, at 9:30, my battery was at 32%. That’s beyond ridiculous. I had 4G on and was reading articles on Pulse. That’s it.

“I mean I’d really like to see you maintain battery longevity under the circumstances…”

That statement makes no sense. I’m not a handset manufacturer.

B Dutta

LTE power consumption (or for that matter, any of 3.5/3.75G or 4G radio technologies), is a known issue. And you have every right to be angry and frustrated, as a consumer. You were promised never-before mobile broadband speeds, but were never told, that “sorry, you can browse 4x faster, but that also sucks your battery dry at 4x rate”.

Most technologists involved with this technology understand the battery drain problem, and most initial LTE business-cases were around using it as dongle tethered to your laptop or another device that has a much larger battery. However, note that, even tethered, the LTE dongle would suck more juice than a 3G dongle, so even the laptop battery drains faster, but hopefully lasts through the tube ride etc., and you can plug it in, once you reach office/home.

Battery technology has not evolved at the pace that processor and radio technology has evolved. This is a known fact. So the only solution is to throw in a bigger battery. This is where the mobile handset ergonomics questions come in, and it become a fine (& difficult) balance. Here I’m assuming the cost fact of a larger battery is not the issue.

BTW, we saw the same issues in the Laptop world moving from Mobile-PIII to PIV’s and dual-core P4′s. A 6-cell 1800mAh battery could power a Mobile-PIII for like 4hours (when new), but it couldn’t power a dual-core P4 for more than say 1.5hours. This is reason, more people started opting for extended external batteries, and we can see some of that happening in the mobile handset space as well.

I remember seeing a DIY hack involving a 12V 4Ah SMF lead-acid battery pack, designed to be carried in a small convenient pack with minimum additional electronics to power the plethora of devices we carry, on the go.

Of course, none of that absolves the “user education” that an honest handset manf. must do, to explain that the speed of LTE doesn’t come for free.

http://Website spookie

In fairness, Sprint now charges the $10 data upcharge on ALL smartphones, regardless of their 4G capability. This includes ALL BlackBerry smartphones despite there being NO BlackBerries with 4G capability. Only feature phones don’t pay an upcharge for data. Even when only EVO and Epic paid the upcharge, it applied even if you never used 4G and lived in a non-4G area. It was never a charge for 4G; it was a charge for phones likely to use very large amounts of data. You’re not paying extra for 4G.

I’ve owned an EVO since day 1, and like all Android phones, some tweaking is required to get maximum battery life. Furthermore, even when optimized, battery life isn’t a full day. This isn’t news for those of us who have used smartphones since the beginnings and I’ve ALWAYS carried multiple batteries and swapped out during the day. ALWAYS! I don’t find it a problem to toggle 4G off when I’m not actively using it, and 4G simply isn’t needed for background data collection. I also turn off the GPS, wifi, hotspot, and Bluetooth radios when not in use. Toggles for the homescreen make this easy. What I DON’T do is avoid battery suckers like widgets and customizations. I LOVE that my EVO is even more hackable than my Treos were! My EVO is HEAVILY customized, battery life be damned! On an average day, I use two batteries. I carry four spares, and have never used more than three–so a total of four full charges, and I still have backup if I need it. Exactly what my first Palm Treo used per day. My last Treo could go a day on a charge, and even with heavy use I never used more than one spare. I briefly had a BlackBerry and a WinMobile6 phone and they had similar battery issues. Only my iPhone could use heavy data all day and last all day–it lasted a week with light use!

Now, if my last Treo had the battery of my current EVO, it’d last days with heavy use! Battery life is improving, allowing more powerful phones, but that again reduces battery life. If battery life (without carrying spares–which are cheap and easy) is your big issue, stay behind the curve and use a less powerful phone. If you want cutting/bleeding edge–carry spare batteries. Kwitcherbitchen!

http://Website Stang68

The Bionic has a huge battery, I think it’ll be fine.

http://Website Tim

Bingo. Yes, 4G uses lots of power. But the Thunderbolt has a relatively tiny battery: 1400mAh. That is smaller than some prior 3G only phones. The Bionic’s 1900mAh battery should do well.

Then again I also think toggling 4G is not unreasonable – they just need to include an easy to use app to do so.

http://Website Farhan Ahmed

Exactly. But what I would like to know is what happened to new battery technologies like this one…

I doubt this its the sign of things to come, mostly because it is well known that HTC makes phones with poor battery life. Just compare the Incredible to the Droid X, moto’sbattery runs circles around HTC. Sure, you can fix this by rooting and installing custom roms, but out of the box, moro wins.

http://Website Eric R.

Larry, no offense.. has HTC harmed you? Do you need an HTC-hug? :)

HTC (like Sony, like Samsung, like Motorola) is bound to the demands of the carrier.

Specifically, the smartphone vendor (HTC) cannot control what apps the carrier odexes into the OS. Why does this matter? On a stock ROM (without root access), the carrier puts odexed apps that cannot be fully shut down / removed, and they turn back on automatically. These apps call for very light mobile data usage, but by how often these apps are requesting data updates, it is enough to keep the CPU from entering battery-saving low-power states, thus wasting up to 2/3rds of the battery life (by my device).

On AT&T stock ROM:
- less than an 8hr work day on a full charge . And no live wallpapers as shipped by AT&T!
- adding a taskKiller app = no change and now you have another running program calling CPU cycles.

On rooted/de-odexed HTC ROM:
- over a full day with live wallpaper, 3G data-on, wifi-on, gps-on, bluetooth-on, sync-off.
- almost three full days with live wallpaper, 3G data-off, wifi-on, gps-on, blutooth-off, sync-off.

I blame the carrier(s) for pushing odexed apps that keep the CPU awake. I believe this just gets worse for 4G thunderbolt as the same odexed embedded carrier apps are both calling up a more power hungry 4G radio, and keeping a faster clocked CPU awake.

Get the carriers to de-odex their apps from Stock ROMs so the customer can honestly choose what services are running. The odexed apps the carrier adds are mostly for extended services they want to bill you to use $$, this adds nothing to the overall Android experience, the smartphone works great without the carrier apps.

-sorry for the rant, I see comments like yours quite a bit. I want you all to join me in this fight against the carriers. -Eric

http://Website mike

Kudos sir! Bloatwear is the exact reason I rooted my evo. Sprint I heart you but I truly don’t need a blockbuster crap. I ranted a bit below about people’s perception or how much they use their phones. For this reason, my next phone will probably be a 3rd Gen nexus with a duel core that hopefully isn’t made by Samsung.

http://Website TheCraiggers

Not only does the phone need to last at least 8 hours, but it needs to be able to do so 2 years from the purchase date, after the battery has last some of its capacity.

http://Website Tim

That’s unrealistic. All batteries lose capacity with normal wear & tear. And phone batteries are relatively cheap. If you want new battery life, you should be prepared to pony up for a new battery every 1-2 years.

http://Website spookie

Oh, that’s just unreasonable! At two years, a battery has lost virtually ALL its capacity, and this is a limitation of Li-ion technology NOT mobile phone tech! You need to purchase a new battery at least once a year. Period. You really should buy and carry a spare as well.

http://Website UniqueNate

I thought the battery itself was smaller anyways? I understand that 4G drains but the only time you should use it is when your browsing or doing something that usually takes long without 4G. Once your done, turn off 4G and that should help on battery. Whats the point of keeping it on when your just walking around or not doing anything with it. It’s not a signal for calling. Just data speeds. I know you can use it to call and browse at the same time, but use wifi to be safe. Just ways I’m sure that can help and make sense is all I’m saying. Could somebody correct me though if the battery is smaller then the Evos battery. I was pretty sure that the Thinderbolt came with a small battery to begin with. The Evo can make it through a day well conditioned using 4G. I understand that Wimax is not as fast as LTE, but a battery drained is a battery drainer. When I turn it off it helped. I made it trough a day. I now use the Epic. I make through a day. Depends on the user and other factors contribute.

http://Website spookie

The original stock battery for the EVO was 1300mAh. You can buy 1750mAh extended batteries that don’t require a special door for about $45~$50. You can buy 1400mAh replacement batteries for ~$7~$20 depending on where and OEM status. You can get 3500mAh batteries that require a special door to fit for $25~$40.

http://Website Hans

Doesn’t the Thunderbolt have a 1400mAh battery? Really small for an LTE phone. I believe LTE and/or Dual Cores require at least a 1900mAh battery.

http://Website bemymonkey

Hmmm, what kind of usage pattern are we talking about here? When I’m hammering the battery (watching streaming Flash video at the gym, for instance), I can drain my Desire (1400mAh battery) in about 3 hours. To make it through a day with truly heavy use, I absolutely need an external battery pack (I use a Just Mobile Gum Pro – highly recommended).

I’d suspect that this is the case with every Android device on the market today, and likely the iPhone as well, although tbh, I haven’t used an iPhone 4 for longer than a few minutes at a time…

Or were you getting much higher battery life from other Android devices with EXACTLY THE SAME usage pattern? Same screen brightness? Same time spent surfing/gaming? Or is it possible that the Thunderbolt is just more fun and you therefore spend more time hammering it? ;)

http://Website Chris

If it is a sign of things to come….I’m slowly going to be leaning towards iPhone 5…

http://Website spookie

If battery life is your sole consideration, you should. Of all my phones, and I’ve owned Treos (7of them), Blackberries (4 of them), iPhones (2 of them), a WinMo5 phone, Androids (3 of them, one by Samsung, two by HTC), and a Pre. (MY current phone is an EVO.) Of all these, only the iPhones got through a full day on a charge with heavy use. For all the others I carried spare batteries with me. I don’t consider this a problem but if you do, get an iPhone.

http://Website Martin

I agree with Larry, I initially bought a Droid Incredible and the battery life sucked balls. My brother got a Droid X, and his battery beat mine by more than 3 hrs, and he got to do a lot more with his device than I did, i.e. surfing the web, playing games, etc. I had to limit my activities or else risk running out of juice before the end of the day. I finally fixed this by buying an extended battery, which did wonders, but also made my Incredible bulkier than I liked. When my upgrade comes, I’ll probably go with Moto. I’m not rooting my phone, so the locked bootloader should not present a problem for me. Bionic FTW!

http://Website ACR

Motorola android devices have best battery. HTC have the worst. That’s all I know.

http://Website DaveC

I bought the 3500mah battery from Seidio for my EVO and I love it. I think they did a great job of designing the replacement cover so the thing doesn’t look like a brick (much better than the G1 extended battery cover). They have a 2750mah battery coming for the Thunderbolt.

http://Website Richard Yarrell

Yeah battery life has been a problem with all these smartphones. Being an Htc Evo 4g owner I should know even with the stock 1500 mah battery if you are a heavy user you still won’t get 8hrs without having to charge. The Thunderbolt comes stock at 1400 mah battery so I know they won’t have a chance to go 8hrs as well. Guess I have except this battery issue from day hoping it will get better in the future I guess the future is now. The Motorola Atrix 4g has 1930 mah stock battery and the Droid Bionic I believe has the same 1900 mah battery the new Htc Evo3d will have a 1730 mah stock battery and the Samsung Galaxy S2 will have an 1650 mah stock battery. I can only hope the combination of dualcore and larger capacity batteries will make things better for all of us we can only hope. I carry two 1500mah batteries for my evo 4g and carry my charger everyday hopefully that will change soon

http://Androidandme Clanmech

The extended battery that seidio makes for the evo is great. I have 2 buddies at work that have them and they get at least 2 days of use out of them.

http://Website treefq

I read an article that 2 cores will actually increase battery life. The CPUs split the job and get it done quicker/better or something like that.

http://Website Matt

I haven’t had much problem with the battery life. I can go 8 hours and still have 60% left but I live in a 3g area. 4g must really be hard on the battery life.

http://Website CJ

HTC Android phones seem to have problem with battery life regardless of 3G or 4G. In my household right now we have the Droid, Droid X, Inspire, Incredible, EVO, ThunderBolt, HD2 and the Imagio. Of those phones the Indredible, EVO and ThunderBolt are lucky to pull off 5 hours of off the charger “moderate” use. The X is the best of the bunch, I can easily manage 8 hours of use and still be at about 40% charge.

http://Website Daniel

“only to launch with the issues fully intact on the LTE network”

That’s a fairly big assumption. For all we know, battery life could be even worse before.

http://Website Hans

Was it ever even confirmed the Thunderbolt was delayed due to battery issues?

http://Website Nick

I think for me what a sign to come is, the fact that I want more out of my phone then just a cell device. I use it to tether at work, GPS, Gaming equipment. Guess what, every time I use it for these functions it’s being charged. I think we need to change our perception on what a we need these devices for and pay for the cost of a turbo charged internet movie watching game playing beast with low battery life. If I wanted a phone with a good battery life I’d get some robust long lasting battery phone if all I needed was text, emails, and voice.

http://Website Eric R.

Nick, I believe you are correct. People do believe that a battery sufficient for a mobile phone, can add all these dual-core options, gaming options, communication options, and have no impact to battery life. Battery tech has not caught up with the demand for non-phone services. Also see the other side, where we are being sold services that can’t be practically used without some power suppliment. My wife experiences this on her iPhone4, if she plays games for a couple of hours, the device eats the battery. Same with my Android.

When I use my Android as a GPS, it is plugged in to the car just like my old stand-alone GPS was. When I tether my data for more than a few minutes, I am usually plugged in.
- I thought this was normal, guess you and I are weird.

http://Website spookie

I think those who are users of phones with hotspots don’t realize that tethering charges a phone. On my EVO, the biggest battery sucker is hotspot and using it can drain my battery to 5% in 3 hours from 100%. I don’t carry a cable in my Macbook Air’s tiny bag so I use hotspot rather than tethering.

http://Website Chris M

Rooting on HTC products seems to be the only way to extend battery life where the factory untouched unit seems not to make it at.

My phone lasts a day and a half on 3G only and 12~16hrs on 4G depending on what I am doing. The roms out there at the moment can’t get rid of all the VZW stuff (backup assistant), nor all the sense stuff so it begs me to think they need to work on the kernel more.

These next phones should look better battery wise if the math behind 40% more battery life with dual core is correct. Single core seems to look pretty scary with LTE, unless you have a 1500 mah battery like the Samsung Droid Charge or the LG Revolution.

Gingerbread should help battery life on the thunderbolt tho, just like froyo improved the droid 1.

http://Website Tom

Only way to get good battery life out of this device is to root. I’m getting 20+ hours out of my Thunderbolt every day with a mix of LTE and 3G in there, but mostly LTE. I don’t toggle between the two, it just depends on what area of the city I am in (or in some cases even what area of the house) that determines my signal. I think it’s sad that they (HTC/Verizon) just couldn’t have released these phones with the same kernel and voltages as the developers have.

http://Website snowbdr89

I easily get 16 out of my tbolt with moderate use but at this point id rather them spend more time developing long lasting batteries instead of dual core or 3d phones!!

http://Website wolfcry0

It would seem that LTE isn’t as good as it could be yet, thats to be expected though since it is a new thing somewhat.

I have a nexus one on t-mobile and average about 5-8mbps download and 1-3 upload where I live, but the difference from LTE is that I can go 20-30 hours before needing a charge with 4G on.

http://Website Larry

Android and Me appears to have a bunch of HTC Fanbois. Almost all the comments talking about the fact that HTC ships phones with poor battery life, regardless of whether it is 3G or 4G, are getting downvoted. Too bad, HTC fanbois are becoming like Apple fanbois, they refuse to believe anything bad about the company, and down vote it anyone dares to point it out.

http://Website RAPTOR

Do not push the wagon ahead of locomotion. Will see how long next iPhone will run with 4G. LOL

Theoretically, 4G shouldn’t suck battery much faster. The things are similar to multi-core processors. But when power/bandwidth management is not done right, they definitely can. Two cores instant drainage (consumption power) is approximately twice larger, but they also do the job twice faster – this is why multicore stuff works. But you should get substantially faster then 5mbps network for 4G to see the advantage over current 3G. Here is why:

I get 5mbps / 2mbps DL/UL on HSPA+ with just 3G Samsung Vibrant on T-Mo and the phone lasts a week with little usage. I have no headache if i charged it or not till the weekend. Maximum i had two weeks. Some days were at 5% drainage per day according to Battery Snap drainage graph (means 20 days). At least in this respect that’s incredible device. Till i see that drainage with the new 4G incarnations and the speeds ~15mbps there is not deal for me.

http://Website mike

I think reading the comments here have backed my thoughts. People don’t truly know the difference between light moderate and heavy use. I’m not picking on any one person but 16 hours “moderate” when others report 6-8 on moderate to heavy. Others saying 12-16 on moderate are more like it. I’m truly a heavy user. My evo is rooted running VP 3.2 and a sbc kernel (no my battery isnt goint to blow up) with custom settings on juice defender. Sunday: unplugged around 830 and was ok till 1030pm. Moderate use. A normal work day 4 me is unplugged at 530am and being under 30% by 11am. I think the larger screens are playing a huge part of the battery drain. I keep mine are 35-40%. My screen on time Sunday was only an hour. Think about that??? Just my two cents.

http://Website Jon Millum

I use the seido 1600 extended battery in my Thunderbolt and have no battery issues. Fits in with the regular cover.

http://Website B

I can’t understand how we’re at a point where phones do so much, either in your hand or on their own in your pocket, yet we can’t rely on the battery. How can they ship these phones knowing what they are capable of, with a craptastic battery. Why it battery technology not being taken seriously in a world where companies have the nerve to boast about quad core processors? This is why I made a post before about certain tech advancing faster than necessary.

http://www.molotovbliss.com/ B00MER

My thoughts exactly, until some new source of energy that can handle all these new bells and whistles the underlying technology doesn’t hold up. I’m still waiting to see wireless electricity come to fruition.

This is the first LTE PHONE so there will be issues like this. This is the beginning not the end. So do what we did with the G1 and buy a second battery and hammer away on your phone.

http://Website Mason

I think that it will get better over the next year or two. The one big issue that nobody mentioned yet is that these LTE baseband chips we’re using now are first-gen. I’m pretty sure the first EVDO and UTMS baseband chips drew much power power than what’s available now. Give the baseband manufacturers some time to really optimize their designs and battery life will probably get better… or at least the difference between LTE and EVDO will disappear.

More efficient screens will probably help too. Hasn’t Samsung made some good progress in getting their superduperultramega AMOLED (or whatever they’re calling it now) screens more power efficient? That’ll probably be a big help, since these big beautiful screens are a big battery draw.

I’m not so sure about better battery tech. Yeah, the Thunderbolt really ought to have a bigger battery, and future models hopefully will. But as for battery tech, LIon batteries are already kinda fickle – ever see or read about Lithium battery “rapid venting with flame” events? They can happen very easily if a battery is every charged or discharged too much or too fast; that’s why these batteries must be changed only on the phone itself, never just by connecting them to a power source. Are you really sure you want to carry around a power source with dramatically more stored energy than a big LIon battery?

Getting rid of that bloatware definitely helps too. My Thunderbolt has no problem lasting all day for me, but I guess I’m a pretty light user, and I have it rooted and all of the bloatware gone. The nice thing about LTE is that, with the SIM cards, there’s a better chance that we’ll eventually be able to buy factory rooted phones direct from the manufacturer and use them on the network, as people have been doing with GSM phones for a while now.

http://Website zee112

THE BATTERY IS NOT THE PROBLEM. IT’S THE BLOATWARE ON THE PHONE. I rooted my TB and removed the bloatware starting with Blockbuster. My battery lasts 14 hours with moderate use on 1 charge.

http://Website Hans

It’s been proven that Motorola android phones have the best battery life when compared to manufacturers such as HTC and Samsung.

http://Website ACR

Battery Life:
Motorola<–Samsung<–HTC

http://Website Derrick

thats like saying you got a fast car with alot of HP but no gas…. POINTLESS

http://www.annetteholland.com Annette @daNanner

I’ve been using Android phones since the G1 and about the only way to get 8 hours is to root and get rid of bloatware. If you don’t want to do that

1) turn down the screen display as low as you can stand it (which is just fine on AMOLED screens like the Galaxy S phones)
2) turn off sync
3) turn off GPS (because really, do you *need* it on sitting at your desk?)
4) toggle data to Edge or turn off completely
5) get Gingerbread, because seriously, I have been blown away by my Nexus since it got Gingerbread. The battery with Wi-Fi turned on all day LASTS!

Just my two cents. I don’t expect incredible battery if I am using my phone heavily for surfing and data. The radios just use too much juice.

http://Website Eric

It is well documented that you can preserve battery life by turning off WiFi, 4G, (even 3G), Sync, GPS, push, background apps, etc….but what is the purpose of having a multi tasking phone if you can’t run them! I have to go into settings (or widgets) and turn them on and off constantly? 4G takes a while to even get going.

I might as well turn my phone off when I’m not using it. That would definitely conserve battery life.

http://chuckfalzone.com Chuck

Our phones do more and more, use faster and faster networks and cpus, but with no similar advances in battery tech. Battery tech is a real limiting factor right now, and whoever comes up with some kind of “next generation” batteries that cram 5-10x the milliamp hours in the same space is going to make piles of money.

It’s not just that we need batteries that will let us get through a day with a phone like the Thunderbolt; to really open up possibilities we need batteries that will let us get through a day while using five times as much power.

Also: I’m having a hard time dealing with the subject-verb agreement issue in this post’s title.

http://Website RAPTOR

All Sammy/HTC/Moto/LG/Apple designers selling us the hype of 8.5mm thick which instead causing sickness for heavy users with their absurd battery life. Sell instead 10 mm thick phones but with 3000mAh battery ! Many would buy them, guaranteed!

If not heavy users will forget where last time they left the charger last month, that’s their problem. LOL

http://Website Eric R.

I would gladly take a thicker form factor, and heavier device, if it meant twice the battery life. I am thinking somewhere greater than the current average thickness, but way less than the “two packs of playing cards in your pocket” HTC Apache I was stretching my pocket protector with.

-Eric

http://Website Eric R.

I would gladly take a thicker form factor, and heavier device, if it meant twice the battery life. I am thinking somewhere greater than the current average thickness, but way less than the “two packs of playing cards in your pocket” HTC Apache.

Things like this are a catch-22 for manufacturers. If they ship the phone with a slim battery like the Thunderbolt’s heavy users will be complaining about horrible battery life. If they ship the phone with a big powerful battery, the average user will be complaining about how heavy the phone is and how phone x is so much slimmer and better looking. In the end it’s probably more effective to sell it with sexy slim lines where you can add a big battery with an ugly hump-backed cover later than it is to sell it ugly out of the box with capacity many users will not use.

http://Website cb2000a

Because HTC did not put a big enough battery in this phone. The Bionic will have a bigger battery which is one reason i am waiting….

http://Website spookie

That’s the beauty! YOU don’t have to buy the latest and greatest. YOU can buy a less powerful phone and get the battery life! Why shouldn’t those of us who WANT bleeding edge tech and are willing to sacrifice battery life to get it not have it because YOU don’t want it. Tech advances according to Moore’s Law, so far, and no one is required to have the latest and greatest. I’ll continue to buy the bleeding edge devices and carry extra batteries. You can have the old stuff.

http://Website alfi

Why shouldn’t those of us who want the bleeding edge technology AND the good battery life get it? Motorola can put a 1900 MAH in the Atrix and Bionic and still make them look good, why can’t HTC do that?

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